Poorly rated runners need it and fail to make progress (5,5)
I believe the answer is:
tread water
'it and fail to make progress' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.
'poorly rated runners' is the wordplay.
'poorly' indicates anagramming the letters (a poor spelling).
'runners' becomes 'water' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'rated' with letters rearranged gives 'tread'.
'tread'+'water'='TREAD WATER'
'need' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tread water that I've seen before include "Hold back from making progress" , "just survive" , "Stay afloat" , "unwilling to go with the flow?" , "having no solid base" .)
